Soldier Loses Scholarship over Same Sex Marriage Retreat

US Army SSgt Kacie Griffin has reportedly lost her opportunity to go to college and become an officer due to a recent controversy over homosexuals and a Strong Bonds marriage retreat.

SSgt Griffin was the chaplain assistant to Chaplain (Maj) Scott Squires at Fort Bragg, which was planning the Strong Bonds event earlier this year. A homosexual couple apparently expressed interest in the event; Chaplain Squires was unable to lead a marriage event with homosexuals attending, so he rescheduled the retreat — so the homosexuals filed a complaint. The investigating officer recommended Chaplain Squires be reprimanded.

For her part, SSgt Griffin was handling the administrative part of the retreat:

“Griffin informed Chaplain Squires of the application and informed the applicant that Chaplain Squires would speak with her. For this purely administrative act, an Army investigator determined she ‘gave the impression she was not eligible for the event’ and should be reprimanded for failing to ‘timely answer’ her question,” First Liberty Institute attorney Michael Berry said.

Though the “investigation” was reportedly finished months ago — and despite the fact SSgt Griffin’s commander already decided she did not engage in discriminatory conduct — both Chaplain Squires and SSgt Griffin are apparently still waiting for the final decision from MGen Kurt Sonntag:

Both the chaplain and the chaplain assistant have flags on their personnel file saying they are under investigation. And until the major general issues a decision, they are still technically under investigation.

Because of that status, SSgt Griffin is ineligible for the Green to Gold opportunity for which she had previously been selected. In fact, SSgt Griffin had the recommendation for Green to Gold from a three-star General just a month before this controversy occurred. First Liberty took MGen Sonntag — a two-star — to task for ‘dragging his feet’:

“Major General Sonntag is expected to make life and death decisions for those under his command, and yet he refuses to make a simple decision that would allow this highly qualified chaplain assistant to obtain her college degree and become an officer,” Berry said. “There can be no other explanation for this indecision except for an anti-religious bias that has no place in the U.S. Army.”

To be fair, Chaplain Squires appears to have been precisely following Army policy — so it’s unclear why this is unclear.

Regardless how this “investigation” concludes, it is giving homosexual activists exactly what they want — and it is also damaging the perception of the environment of religious freedom within the US military.

This is at least the third example of a homosexual lodging a complaint against a military Christian that will negatively impact their career — regardless of the actual outcome. (The MRFF’s Chris Rodda once basically said the investigation was all she cared about, not the result.)

Chaplain Modder was exonerated after months, but as he had been through the ringer for so long he opted to retire shortly thereafter.

Col Leland Bohannon had to appeal all the way to Headquarters Air Force to have common sense applied to an overwrought accusation. It remains to be seen, but Col Bohannon’s critics had gleefully celebrated the demise of his career — boasting that it didn’t matter what the Air Force did, the damage had been done.

Now, Chaplain Squires and SSgt Griffin are in the same position, with SSgt Griffin having already lost a career-changing opportunity in the process.

There are many in the audience as this drama plays out — and many of those are the fellow troops to Chaplain Modder, Col Bohannon, Chaplain Squires, and SSgt Griffin. They will form their own ideas based on what they’ve seen. If, in their eyes, the military disadvantages troops as a result of repeated frivolous complaints about their protected religious beliefs, it will substantially harm the supposed value the military places on religious liberty, and it will ultimately negatively impact both retention and recruitment.

Others in that same audience are homosexual activists — who have seen these processes damage or destroy the careers of those who hold beliefs they do not like.

When DADT was repealed, the homosexual community claimed complaints and accusations like this would never happen. Predictions like this were manufactured fears, they said; the LGBT community just wanted to be “free to be.”

Kind of makes you wonder how many more times this will happen, doesn’t it?

By the way, that homosexual couple that wanted to go to Strong Bonds so badly? They never showed up.